I have a PDR-M81 camera. I took the card out of it and used my card reader to get the pictures off of it. Now the camera has "card error" on the screen. I can't do anything with the camera now. I can't even format the card. How can I fix this?

Did you copy the photos and leave them on the card,or try to use Windows to delete them (and a cut and paste is another way to delete)?

Sometimes if you don't use the "Safely remove hardware" icon in the system tray and remove a card from a reader, you can get corrupted media because Windows can cache writes. You can usually turn off this caching by setting "Optimize for Quick Removal" for the card reader's drivers (usually under a hardware tab somewhere if you look at a reader's properties by right clicking on it).

If the card reader can still see the card, then you can try formatting it using Windows. Make sure to select FAT for the file system.

Simply right click on the card under "My Computer", select Format from the menu. You'll come to a screen that includes a drop down "File System Type" list.

Make sure to select "FAT" from the list (otherwise, Windows defaults to a 32 bit FAT, which is not compatible with your camera).

After formatting it as FAT using Windows, I'd make sure to format it again using the camera's menus for format before using it again.

You could also have something as simply as dirty contacts causing the issue with the camera. Try inserting and removing the card a few times and see if you can get a better connection that way if all else fails.

I sent the card in to get it fixed. When it returned, it says "card not formatted". No problem, I format it. Then I get "card full" message. Then it go back to "card not formatted". Any solutions here?